Hedgehog Fine Motor Skills and Counting

Woohoo! It is Friday again, which means it is time to share our latest little fine motor skills project!

This one has been in the making for over a week already and has a few more uses than just fine motor skills. For my toddler it represents fine motor skills but for my preschooler it is a color sorter as well as a learning to count to 20 little hedgehog.

How did we make the cute hedgehog?

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For this project you will need:

Some DAS modeling material (I used half a 500g pack)

Some nice color craft sticks

Your choice of paints. Acrylics would work well on this but I used plain water paints the one afternoon the boys were painting.

Sorry the making of pics where not very nice so I am just going to leave them out! The DAS clay is grey when wet and might need an extra bit of water for shaping. This one is rather easy to make and doesn’t need pictures.

Work the clay a bit to smooth it and make it flexible. Then roll into a ball and start forming a hedgehog. Make 2 slight indents for the eyes and pinch the end for a nose. Use one of the craft sticks to make the holes for the other sticks making sure to wiggle it a bit to give extra space.

You will have to leave the grey hedgehog on a sheet of wax paper for a few days to dry out.

Take your white hedgehog and paint the color sections with your paints. I painted the colors of the sticks in stripes and a brown face with patch looking eyes.

Number your craft sticks.

Ahh they all fit so nicely! Lets play!

My toddler was first on the scene to inspect. In went the craft sticks in every hole she could stick them. I could tell she very much enjoyed this fine motor skills activity.

More sticking the sticks in the holes. The hedgehog is a HIT!

My toddler was busy with this little fine motor skills hedgehog for well over 40 minutes and so her older brother (4) just left her to it. Which means he hasn’t had the chance to play with the numbers yet!

I really should make 2 of everything. haha. 😉

I hope you enjoyed this rather simple fine motor skills practice hedgehog!

Update: One of our facebook fans suggested: You could also turn it into a chore aid. Simple toddler appropriate chores listed on the back.